Softcover, 76 pp, 5 x 7.5 inches

Inspired by literary precedents such as automatic writing, by the resourcefulness of the bricoleur making do with what is at hand, and by the openness toward chance that all artistic production under severe constraint must necessarily incorporate, Cabinet’s “24-Hour Book” series invites distinguished authors and artists to be incarcerated in an unfamiliar space to complete a project from start to finish within twenty-four hours.

The second volume in the series, artist David Scher’s Hail, Cretin! features the melancholy peregrinations of a demi-centurion missing his upper half. Wandering through a land over which his forces perhaps once held dominion, our protagonist—a lonely, postimperial half-man who seems fated to permanent homelessness—now experiences the flowers and stones of the landscape as if for the first time.

A few sample images from the book are available here.